Who they are
Founder of Standard Oil and, by most measures, the wealthiest American in history. Rockefeller didn't invent oil extraction or refining — he won by controlling distribution, logistics, and pricing power across the entire value chain when oil shifted from a curiosity to the backbone of the industrial economy. William Hockey cites him as the pattern for what happens in a platform shift: the biggest winners aren't the new specialists, they're the incumbents who harness the new infrastructure better than anyone. Hockey's bet is that this is exactly how AI will play out in banking.
Core Ideas
- Standard Oil — the monopoly he built
- Legacy Banking — the modern parallel Hockey draws
Related
- William Hockey — cites Rockefeller as the template for AI's real winners